Nehra’s six puts India on Cloud Nine

After Nick Knight became the victim of Marcus Treschothick’s indecision early — thanks to a Jonty-esque bit of fielding by Mohammed Kaif — it was always going to be an uphill task. Trescothick’s poor form continued as he mistimed a pull off Zaheer to Tendulkar.

And, just when the English thought they’d seen off the opening bowlers in walked Nehra.

The Left-arm seamer braved the pain from a sprained left ankle to take a career-best six for 23, including the wickets of Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart with successive balls.

The 23-year-old also dismissed Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood in an impeccable display in the Group A encounter.

England’s batsmen simply could not put bat to ball as Nehra, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan bowled excellent lines, darting the ball around in the evening conditions.

Nehra, bowling over the wicket, concluded his 10-over spell with a double-wicket maiden — bowling his last over at 140 kmph! His figures, the best by an Indian in a World Cup, were also the best of the 2003 tournament.

The New Delhi bowler, yet to fully establish himself as anautomatic choice in the India line-up, had never taken more than three wickets in a one-dayer before.

Earlier in the day, India’s vaunted batting failed to fire on all cylinders. A curious innings that threatened to take off, but never did, eventually ended in the most bizarre of manners, with four wickets falling in the final over. Indeed, it appeared that the advantage of winning the toss would be frittered away by poor batting against an England attack that was professional, yet rarely threatening.

If Sachin Tendulkar (50 off 50) and Virender Sehwag (23 off 29) whetted the appetite with a tasty, though brief opening stand, the main course was served up by Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh. Though both partnerships were worth 52 runs, the second — Dravid-Yuvraj — was more creditable.

While the openers scored their runs when the fielders were up and under perfect conditions, the late-order flourish was under more trying circumstances. The run graph was falling at an alarming rate and the wicket too was not playing true.

The sharp fall in the run rate was due to Ganguly and Dinesh Mongia finding run-making very difficult as a pumped-up Andrew Flintoff tried to make up for the rather listless start by the strike force of the veteran Andrew Caddick and new find James Anderson.

After Yuvraj departed without showing scant respect for the England pacer and hitting four boundaries and one six Dravid took the charge. The man who’s been pushed and shoved around in the batting lineup changed gears with all the expertise of a Formula 1 driver and his foot on the pedal helped India score 48 runs off the last 10 overs.

Dinesh Mongia’s knock of 32 was scratchy but had a few England supporters asking ‘Where is VVS Laxman?’ Ganguly seemed to be settling in but, trying to increase the pace, lofted a shot straight into the hands of Craig White at mid-on.

The pre-match hype about the England’s new find James Anderson was shattered by India’s explosive opening pair. Sehwag was good in patches. He delighted the crowd with some of his trademark shots but yet another departure while in the 20s isn’t what the commercials and billboards promised us.

Were it not for a dramatic, anticlimactic last over, India might well have posted 260 or so. But four wickets, three to Caddick and one in between to a run-out, without a single run added, gave England 251 to chase.